The Dallas Stars will look to bounce back and reclaim their strong home performance when they play the St. Louis Blues on Saturday.
Before a 4-1 loss to the Nashville Predators on Thursday, the Stars had a solid 11-2-0 record at home. They will now try to respond strongly in their first game of the season against their Central Division rivals, the Blues.
“We have to be a lot better at the start of next game,” said Dallas defenseman Miro Heiskanen. “We have to do everything better.”
The Stars will focus on putting pressure on the Blues’ defense to create more offensive chances.
“I didn’t think we had enough chances or created enough in the whole game,” Heiskanen added. “We were too slow and too soft and didn’t end plays quick enough. Forecheck wasn’t working really well, we didn’t (force) many (turnovers). We have to be a lot sharper all over the ice.”
The only goal for Dallas in the loss to Nashville came from rookie defenseman Lian Bichsel, who scored in his NHL debut.
“He showed what’s intriguing about him,” said Stars coach Peter DeBoer. “He’s a big body and the way he got up ice on that goal, the way he skated. We like that element from our defensemen. There were some really good signs.”
The Stars have struggled recently, losing three of their last four games, with Jake Oettinger starting in goal for each.
The Blues are coming off a 3-1-0 road trip through Western Canada, but lost 4-3 to the San Jose Sharks on Thursday. St. Louis didn’t play well until the third period, when a late rally almost forced overtime.
“Every team does it in the league,” said Blues captain Brayden Schenn about the tough road schedule. “That’s no excuse. It’s just they’re tougher games to play, no doubt about it. At the same time, when you have that, you just have to play smarter. We probably would like to have our first two periods back (Thursday) and manage the game a little bit better.”
The Blues allowed odd-man rushes throughout the game because their forwards didn’t cover for the defensemen who moved deep into the offensive zone.
“We’re asking our defensemen to pinch pucks that are on walls,” said Blues coach Jim Montgomery, who has a 5-2-1 record since replacing Drew Bannister as head coach. “They did and they kept them in. What’s happening is our forwards got to get above (the puck). The forward that’s responsible for replacing the D, when the puck gets stopped, he’s stopping.”
The Blues took Friday off to rest and prepare for the game against the Stars.
“We’ve been in a lot of different beds,” said Blues defenseman Ryan Suter, a former Star. “It’s tough, but every day is a new day. You wake up and you kind of forget about the past and you focus on being good that night.”
Blues center Radek Faksa, also a former Star, didn’t play against the Sharks but coach Montgomery hoped he would be ready to face his old team. Nathan Walker filled in as the fourth-line center in his place, and Mathieu Joseph rejoined the lineup.
